Box lid



N- A. LEASH March 8, 1949.

BOX LID 2 SheetsSheet 1 Filed July 13, 1944 FigriU INVENTOR NE\L A,LEASH BY W M ATTORN EYS March 1949- N. A. LEASH 2,463,982

BOX LID 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 13, 1944 warm-aw? INVENTOR NE|L A. LEASH BY MMM,

AT TORNEYS Patented Mar. 8, 1949 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Neil A. 33:12:00.0, Greg. Application July 13, 1944, Serial No. 544,776

1Claim.

This invention relates in general to the securing of relatively thin board sheets to underlying members, such as cross cleats; and relates particularly to the construction of wooden crates and especially to the making of lids for fruit boxes and the like.

In the manufacture of wooden box lids it was the practice until recently to attach the boards or shooks to the cross pieces or cleats by staples or nails. To a considerable extent, due in part to the recent scarcity of suitable staples and nails for this purpose, and also to certain disadvantages in having the boards secured to the cleats only by nails or staples, the practice of using gluefor this purpose is now being quite generally followed. The employment of glue for the making of such box lids is somewhat less convenient in the manufacturing operation and is also subject to the objection that the cheaper grades of glue frequently used for this .purpose are not always reliable and many of the grades are not sufllciently waterproof to insure a strong permanent hold under all conditions to which the box lids may be subjected. The use of both glue and nails is sometimes employed but this considerably increases the labor and expense involved.

The object of this invention is to provide an improved method of securing board sheets, such as thin boards, shooks, etc., to underlying supporting members, cross cleats, etc., in which the use of nails and staples is rendered entirely unnecessary and in which the use of any glue will be optional.

Another object of this invention is to provide an improved method of securing such pieces together in which a firm grip will always be assured and in which the subjecting of the secured pieces to moisture conditions will serve only to make them hold together more tightly instead of weakening the bond between them.

A further object is to provide a method of joining such pieces which will be simple and prac-- tical and which will be inexpensive enough to be suitable for the manufacture of lids for ordinary wooden boxes.

My method will be easily understood from the following brief description in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a view in perspective of a box lid in which the boards or shocks are secured to the end cleats by my improved method;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary enlarged section corresponding to the line 2-! of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a view in perspective of a box lid formed in accordance with my invention, in which the lid has 'a central cleat in addition to the end cleats;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary enlarged section corresponding to line 4-4 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a transverse section of the center cleat shown in Figs. 3 and 4 before the top boards are secured thereto, showing the grooves made in the cleat preparatory to attaching the boards or shocks;

Fig. 6 illustrates a modified way in which the center and end cleats may be grooved to enable the boards to be secured thereto;

'Fig. '7 is a sectional view of an end cleat and attached board. similar to Fig. 2, but with the end cleat grooved in the manner shown in Fig. 6;

Figs. 8 and 9 illustrate a modified manner of forming grooves in a cleat;

Fig. 10 shows the tongue of the board in place in the cleat groove of Fig. 9; and

Fig. 11 is a fragmentary plan view of the tongue and groove of Fig. 10.

Referring first to Figs. 1 and 2 the box lid shown comprises the usual end cleats or transverse members Iii and ii and the top boards or shocks i2 and I3. A series of similar equallyspaced grooves H are first cut in the cleats i0 and l I; the boards i 2 and i3 are next set in position on the cleats; and finally suitable plungers or press elements are positioned above the board ends and over the cleat grooves and operate to press portions of the boards downwardly in the form of tongues it: into the respective grooves. The tongues and grooves shown in Figs. 2 and 3 are the same width.

The cleat grooves H can conveniently be formed with a battery of rotated saws, and similarly the tongues can be pressed out of the boards and forced into the grooves with a corresponding battery of plungers. I have found it convenient for this purpose to employ a series of arms, moving in vertical planes and rigidly mounted on a central horizontal drive shaft, with one end of each arm constituting a saw or cutter and the other end constituting the tongue former and depresser. With such a device the cleats are first set in position, then are grooved by the cutter ends of the arms, after which the boards are set in position on the cleats, and finally the arms are given further rotation so as to cause the tongues to be punched from the boards and pushed down into the grooves.

My method, as thus far described, may be used either with or without the addition of glue. If it is required to have an exceptionally strong hold between the cleats and boards the addition of I 3 glue will strengthen this hold. In such case glue may be applied to the top face of the cleats, or preferably at the corresponding portion on the under face of the boards, before the boards are set in position on the cleats and thus before the tongues are formed and are pushed into the grooves. Although the glue will increase the binding hold between cleats and boards, I have found nevertheless that for ordinary purposes the forcing of the tongues into the grooves will be sumcient to secure the boards and cleats firmly and tightly together without the use of glue or of any oher holding means. I have also found that when the wood is subjected to moisture. after the tongues are in place in the grooves, the swelling of the tongues as a result of the effect of the moisture on the wood, considerably increases the bonding grip between the cleats and boards. This is an important feature of my invention. Since the grain of the wood in the shocks extends longitudinally with respect to the shocks and thus longitudinally with respect to the tongues l5, and since the greatest swelling in wood caused by moisture is across thegrain of the wood, the eifect of any moisture on the box lid is to cause the tongues 15 to expand laterally and thus to become more tightly wedged in the grooves.

In the box lid shown in Fig. 3 there is a center cleat i8, as well as the usual end cleats i8 and IT, to which the top boards or shocks i9 and 20 are secured. In larger lids it is customary to have one or more cleats in addition to the end cleats. The boards l9 and 20 are secured to the center cleat 58 in the same manner. Grooves 2| (Fig. cleat l8, and when the boards are in position over the cleat suitable plungers or other tongueforming means are employed to punch out tongues 22 and drive them into the grooves 2|. The punched-out strips or tongues will separate in two, due to the stretching of the section punched out, as shown in Fig. 4, thus resulting in a pair of tongues extending into each groove from opposite directions.

As with the end cleats, glue may or may not be used with the center cleat, and similarly moisture serves only to increase the hold of the tongues 22 in the center cleat grooves 2|, as previously explained.

The grooves in the center and end cleats, instead of being formed with curved bottom walls, may be formed with flat bottoms extending transversely across the cleats, like the groove 23 of the cleat 24 in Fig. 6. Fig. '7 shows an end cleat grooved in this manner. The tongue 25 in such case does not contact the bottom of the groove throughout its entire length but nevertheless will be securely held in the groove by its engagement with the side walls of the groove, and with grooves so formed longer tongues can be made in the boards, if desired, to increase the holding grip accordingly. By using cleats grooved in this manner there is no difierence between center cleats and end cleats. All cleats can be grooved in advance, whereupon a single punching operation with suitable plungers is all that I is required to fasten the boards to the pre-formed cleats.

In the ways of carrying out my invention which I have described thus far, the tongues and grooves are approximately of the same width. While for ordinary purposes it will be 5) are first cut in the as between tongues and grooves, even without the use of glue, I have also found that this grip can be greatly increased by making the tongues wider than the grooves so that the tongues can be wedged in the grooves even more firmly than, for

example, occ when the tongues are caused to expand in th grooves by the absorption of moisture.

Fig. 10 illustrated such a tonge 28 punched from the board 21 and wedged in the cleat groove 28'. In order to accomplish this wedging satisfactorily I have found it practical and desirable, in forming the chat groove, to make the saw kerf or cut in the cleat narrower than the width of the tongue. In Figure 8 the cleat 28 is shown immediately after having been cut with a saw cutter which has formed the groove or kerf 28. After this cut is made a wedge, wider than the cut 28, is forced through the cut, the wedge being approximately the same width as the tongue which is to be pressed forms the side walls of the cut as indicated in Fig. 9. This objects, first. it facilitates the subsequent pushing of the tongue to the bottom of. the groove, and second. it causes the deformed wood fibers in the groove walls to be curved to some extent towards the end of the cut, as indicated diagrammatically in Fig. 11, so that when the tongue is finally forced in the groove, as shown in Figs. 10 and 11, any attempt to pull the tongue out of the groove will be resisted even more strongly by the curved fibers of the groove wall which slope in a contrary direction and which engage the sides of the tongue.

I claim:

40 A box lid of the character described comprising shocks and cross cleats. each of said cleats having a plurality of grooves in its top face extending transversely across the grain of the wood of said cleats, the bottoms of said grooves sloping upwardly to said top face, said shocks having tongues forced downwardly into said grooves and contacting the bottoms of said grooves for the entire tongue length the grain of the wood in said shocks and tongues extending in the same general direction as said grooves, said tongues being of sufllcient width to be securely wedged in said grooves, the engagement of said tongues in said grooves holding said shocks firmly in place on said cleats.

' NEIL A. LEASH.

REFERENCES CITED UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 128,310 Hill June 25, 1872 451,549 Baker May 5, 1891 632,345 Fenlason Sept. 5, 1899 1,075,845 Mills Oct. 14, 1913 1, ,663 Shaw Feb. 10, 1925 1,773,924 Merrill Aug. 26, 1930 1,812,151 Jacocks June 30, 1931 1,909,345 Green May 16, .1933

into the groove. I The forcing of the wedge through the cut deto some extent, accomplishes two 

